This Week in Weird

Friday

A collection of odd news that GateHouse newspapers reported on this week.

Feud gets dirty as it ends in Dumpster

Victor, N.Y. - It doesn’t get much stranger than this at Valentown Hall museum.

That’s saying a lot for a place investigated by television “Ghost Hunters” and owned by billionaire B. Thomas Golisano. It’s an imposing old building housing everything from preserved brains to a huge collection of old shoes, and it was home for many years to one of Victor’s most eccentric families.

But there, early one morning last week, was a grown man staring out of a Dumpster at a gaggle of angry history buffs, with everybody taking pictures of everybody else.

Then the cops arrived.

The deputies tossed brothers Douglas and Warner Fisher off Valentown grounds for sorting through contents of that Dumpster, there for a renovation project.

What was inside the Dumpster?

According to the Fishers, important historical artifacts collected by their father, the late J. Sheldon Fisher, and callously tossed out by the members of the Victor Historical Society.

According to the society members, construction debris.

But wait.

Upon inspection, some of the items found in the Dumpster were important historical artifacts, society members conceded, but they must have been planted there by the Fishers, “who are jealous” and “will stop at nothing to discredit our efforts,” said society President Carol Finch.

“I do not recognize any of these objects as having been placed in the Dumpster,” said Gary Lehmann, museum curator. “I wouldn’t be at all surprised to discover that the Fishers brought these things with them.”

Boat owner thwarts burglary with 2x4

LAKE OF THE OZARKS, Mo. -- A resident who lives on a houseboat at the Moorings Yacht Club is being credited with breaking up a band of thieves roaming around on the docks after chasing them down with a two-by-four and holding them captive until police arrived.

No one was hurt in the incident, and the goods the thieves were trying to make off with were recovered.

According to the Missouri Water Patrol, the thieves appeared to be collecting a stash of alcohol, coolers and copper wire off boats moored at the yacht club on the Grand Glaize Arm of the lake.

Their plan was thwarted when a couple who live at the yacht club were awakened by the sounds of someone sliding a cooler off the top deck of their home. The man jumped up, grabbed the board and took off after the thieves while his wife called police.

The Osage Beach Police Department and the Missouri Water Patrol responded to the call.

When they arrived, the thieves had been cornered by the houseboat owner, who was brandishing the two-by-four at them.

Why carry a winter glove in August? To hide drugs, police say

SOMERVILLE, Mass. -- While trying to control an unruly man Aug. 15, police found him hiding weed and cash in a winter glove stuffed into his pants, according to a report.

While on patrol at 8:14 p.m., Patrolman Alex Capobianco reportedly saw two people fighting at the corner of Broadway and Rush Street.

When he got out of the cruiser and ordered them to stop, one of them refused to obey and continued his reckless conduct, reportedly causing a public inconvenience and alarming citizens in the area.

Later identified as Braulio L. Duarte, 17, of 250 Vine St., Everett, the defendant had to be subdued by a group of officers outside 154 Broadway.

Sgt. John Vozella reported that he felt a big bulge while searching Duarte and suspected he was trying to conceal something. Police found a buck knife in his right pocket and seven plastic bags of marijuana and $25 in cash tucked in his groin, inside a red winter glove.

Want to race an outhouse?

LAKE OZARK, Mo. -- Imagine the sight: dozens of outhouses on wheels sailing down a street, complete with their moon-shaped windows and their his and her signs flapping in the breeze.

Somewhere out there is an engineer or a shade tree mechanic with the ability to design a prize-winning outhouse that can take on the competition in a dead-heat race on the Bagnell Dam Strip.

The race is scheduled for Sept. 29 during the second annual Oma and Noma Days, which runs for three days the last weekend of the month.

“Everyone here in the Ozarks remembers the outhouses at their parent’s or grandparent’s farms,” Jeff VanDonsel said. “Now that we have indoor plumbing, we decided the old outhouses are only good for one thing -- racing.”

Electric workers: See you later, alligator!

FULTON, Ark. -- Daily tedious work turned into a scene from Jurassic Park for Arkansas Electric Co-Op workers David Waters and J.R. McKenney.

The two Fulton power plant workers found themselves running for their lives last week to escape from an angry, 7-foot mother alligator guarding a nest of eggs.

“We have retention ponds that we check for leaks,” Waters said. “When we got to the back side, we saw some mud and grass in an open spot. We walked up to it, and here he came after us.”

The two had unknowingly walked up to an alligator nest.

“I said, ‘I don't think we can outrun him,' then I looked at J.R. and he said, ‘I don' t have to outrun him. ... I just have to outrun you,'” Waters said.

Waters said both men went into overdrive.

“We were running at Mach One,” he said.

Waters and McKenney agreed that they had “a hair-raising experience.”

“I don't think he followed us too far, but we weren't looking back,” Waters said.

After reaching safe ground, Waters said they called the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

“We thought this was a job for professionals,” Waters said.

Colorado man discovers Chamber of Secrets in his home

TELLURIDE, Colo. -- You live in a house for 37 years, and you think you know its secrets. But one day, Don Smith is installing new shelves in his basement on North Willow Street, when — krrrack! — he punches an apple-sized hole into the dirt floor.

Well, if this doesn’t beat all. Smith threads a tape measure into the gloomy aperture — 3 feet, 4 feet, 5 feet down — until he strikes the bottom of this hidden chamber, 7 feet below his basement floor.

Smith believes that decades ago, miners who lived in his century-old frame house used this room to extract gold from ore they’d stolen from the mines above Telluride. The process was called high-grading, and it represents a lesser-known part of Telluride’s mining history.

Miners would stuff hunks of raw ore into their lunch pails, into the hollow soles of their shoes, into socks and underwear. Miners would often sell the ore to middlemen in town or on the mesas, who extracted the gold and fenced it to buyers in Denver, Salt Lake City or beyond.

Man saves rare turtle from being squashed

CARVER, Mass. -- Would you help an old cooter cross the road? That’s exactly what Carver resident John Duffy did last month.

While traveling Route 58 July 9, Duffy noticed a large object in the roadway. Upon further examination, he realized it was a very large turtle. It had narrowly escaped being squashed by a truck. Duffy pulled over, stopped traffic and helped the turtle reach the safety zone it was so purposefully heading for.

Duffy, an avid hunter, was almost positive the turtle he guided to safety was a rare northern red-bellied cooter. Duffy was correct. Pseudemys rubriventris is known to inhabit just one county in Massachusetts: Plymouth. The turtle received Endangered Species Act protection in 1980 and is still considered endangered today. Due to its very small and geographically specific population, long-term survival is always threatened.

Duffy estimated the turtle to be between 14-16 inches long from head to tail. He said he suspected it was a female because of its size.

“She may have been just out for a stroll, but I don’t know that much about them. They generally lay their eggs in June, but who knows?” he said.

Tourism director quits after lying about Oprah

PROVINCETOWN, Mass. -- Administrative tourism director Bill Schneider resigned Tuesday in the wake of his confession that he lied about a self-published book being chosen as part of “The Oprah Winfrey Book Club.”

Schneider issued a public statement briefly outlining what he believes his achievements were over the three yeas he was at the helm of the tourism office in town hall. The statement makes no mention of the scandal that cast a dark cloud over what had previously been a sterling reputation in town.

Town officials planned to investigate whether or not Schneider abused his office with the proliferation of numerous and elaborate lies he told about his work as a writer.

However, he resigned before such an investigation was completed.

Schneider, who self-published three novelettes, told The Cape Codder and many other reporters and townspeople that he appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in June and that his most recent book, "Crossed Paths" was chosen as part of her popular book club. His Web site gave details of his fictional appearance and there was a link to a five-page transcript of the 10-minute segment that supposedly featured Schneider, which he wrote himself. There was even a framed image of the cover of his book with a small metal plaque that, he says, is a special award for the sale of his book, which he said skyrocketed after his appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

Harpo Productions in Chicago confirmed last week that Schneider was never a guest on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and that his book was not part of the book club.

GateHouse News Service

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